Laos – Land of eery silences and Beauty

On the occasion of the Pchum Benh holidays (a remembrance period for the dead where you are meant to visit as many pagodas as you can in fifteen days) I decided was a great opportunity to fill a gap in my South East Asia traveling experience and head for the much lauded People’s Democratic Republic of Laos (yes – one of the last examples of pseudo-communism).

It was off to a less than auspicious start, arriving at the airport to be told that my ticket was for two days time, seems I hadn’t thought checking the date on the ticket was necessary. But nevertheless a few phone calls to my travel agent and he was able to sort it.

My old supervisor at AusAID, Simon, had been posted there a few months ago so the main reason was to see him in Vientiane. He and one of his daughters picked me up and we grabbed some pizza and headed back to his place. He has a lovely family and his kids decided for some reason decided I looked like Harry Potter and called me that the rest of the trip!

Vientiane is a bit of a creepy city, its so quiet and there is no energy in the air like in Cambodia, in fact I was a little depressed by it all so I was glad I was staying with Simon and his family. We visited the Patuxai a bizarre Arc De Triumphe meets a Laos Disney Princess structure made out of pure concrete (concrete the Americans had donated to build a new airport but I guess there were artistic differences). You can walk up all the way but most of it reminds me seedy car park stairs complete with urine stench. Worth it for novelty value.

The other sight we went to was the Pha Thuat Luang. Yeah it was nice and worth going to but fifteen minutes round and we were done. We decided I had seen more than my fair share of pagodas in Cambodia so we could skip the rest so we just hung around on the weekend which was great.
On the Monday morning I hopped on a van bound for Van Vieng. I had been somewhat dreading visiting Van Vieng as I had read that it was a skanky backpacker place and I HATE backpackers! The bus left at 9am on a Monday and still half the places weren’t open and the streets were empty. I think Kampong Speu is busier than Vientiane!

On the bus I met a nice old guy traveling with his Thai girlfriend so we struck up a convo which was nice. We arrived at Van Vieng and the van stopped at this bungalow style resort along the river with the most amazing mountain scenery. The bungalow was only 8 bucks so I thought bugger it I will take it.

Van Vieng is, as I suspected, a skanky backpacker town sprinkled with dodgy pizza places, banana pancakes and TVs constantly playing ‘Friends’ for the stoners. But it is set in the most amazing scenery so it is well worth going to.

The next day Johnny and I signed up for a one day tour. It ended up with me, Johnny and two English guys on the tour. First up we kayaked for about thirty seconds across the river and then went tubing through this great cave system and crawled through it, lots of fun. Then we kayaked for about an hour through simply breathtaking gullies and things like that. There were some small rapids which were fun, but predictably my kayak capsized when Johnny and I decided to cut through a bend. We then paddled up to this bar on the side of the river which operated this enormously high flying fox thing to jump into the water. First of all terrified by it I thought bugger it and had a go. Lots of fun.

The next day I hopped in another mini-bus bound for Luang Prabang. Unfortunately it was with this absolute twit English woman who also lived in Cambodia who wouldn’t shut up and the frequency of her voice cut through my MP3 player. I avoided her like the plague knowing if she knew I lived in Cambodia as well she would pin me for a few hours. This poor Brazilian guy was next to her and whenever he dozed off, she would watch him to see if he was stirring then start the conversation again. I have to say the mountains we went over and the Hmong villages we went through were among the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen in my life (probably number two :)

Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, sitting alongside the Mekong and Nam Kang rivers. The whole city is a world heritage area which I am not sure is entirely justified. There are many beautiful temples within walking distance of which I visited many.

The national Museum is the former Royal Palace. I have to say it is significantly less opulent than othe Royal Palace's around the joint (Thailand, Cambodia). In fact it seemed more like a manor house than a palace. The last full day there I was booked to go on an elephant tour and waterfall visit but some awful news came through and I left the next morning to Sydney for a week.